A UNIVERSE BIG & SMALL

A young Carl Sagan ponders the mysteries of the universe.

What was the astronomer and host of the television series Cosmos like as a boy? He began by asking questions. As young Carl fantasizes about what it would be like to be smaller, Yang depicts a block-shaped child dwindling in size “until he [can] visit atoms floating around him.” The tiny Carl looks up at big bold red and blue molecules, observes atoms creating cells, and concludes, “If every living thing is made of cells, then everything is connected.” Then Carl mulls what would happen if he could grow bigger “and visit the stars. Stars [are] made of atoms, too.” Yang lines up Carl’s big, round face alongside planets, illustrating the vastness of his imagination. This point becomes literal when Carl figures out that he needs “something special…to answer his questions”: a spaceship named Imagination. The ship launches a journey to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (and Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons), each a vivid world of geometric shapes and swirls. Yang frames the story with illustrations depicting Carl daydreaming as he gazes out of his backlit apartment window on a starry night filled with deep shades of blue. Young Carl stands in for every child who’s ever asked big questions and considered how to answer them. The first step, as Yang makes beautifully clear, is always imagination.

A lovely interpretation of curiosity and wonder.